1978 Fiat 124 Restoration -- I hope

[wajulia]

I finished disassembling and sanding the doors.

The passenger door below. No real surprises. A little rush internal to the door that I need to address, otherwise it is the best panel on the car.


Now the drivers door -- Another surprise. That line of droplets you can see in the photo is old damage. It looks like it dragged something all the way down the door. It is dented and buckled and warped. There was about 1/2 inch of bondo on the door to bring back the shape. Again, not a lot of evidence of trying to repair damage, just bondo over it. This is going to cause me to buy one of those dent puller spot welders -- or buy a new door skin.

Still waiting for the lower valence pieces so I can get started putting some new metal on.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Now the drivers door -- Another surprise. That line of droplets you can see in the photo is old damage. It looks like it dragged something all the way down the door.

Interesting. One possibility is that someone was backing the car in or out of a garage or other tight space, had the door open, and hit the garage door frame or a workbench or the like. Two feet of damage before realizing what was happening....

-Bryan

[wajulia]

I began to look at the drivers rear wheel well and realized that there was nothing to fix. I removed the outer wheel well assembly. It is seen below draped over the back of a chair. Not much left to it.



I bought a new one from Mr. Fiat. The shape seems to be about right, but there is a lot more material than I need. Not sure how to measure and trim -- because it is to large it cannot fit into the space. So I am thinking I might cut it into 3 or 4 pie wedges and then just keep trimming until I get where I need it. Any thoughts

[wajulia]

I finally got the four "sill" panels for the sills near all four wheels. I took the sill off the drivers side and found more rust. Below is the car with the sill removed. I will put a small patch panel on the rust hole seen in the left. After that it seems like I finally hit solid metal.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Any thoughts

You're way beyond my level of ability so there's not much that I can offer, other than to say you are doing good work so far, and so I'd just keep going. I wish you were closer to where I am, as my 1971 spider has a few outer panels that need replacing, and my skills are limited to mechanical work and not bodywork.

-Bryan